1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and systems for collecting and processing images in ophthalmology for diagnostics and treatment of a disease or any other physiological condition.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an optical signal imaging and processing technique that captures three-dimensional (3D) data sets with micrometer resolution. This OCT imaging modality has been commonly used for non-invasive imaging of an object of interest, such as the retina of the human eye for example, over the past 15 years. A cross sectional retinal image as a result of an OCT scan allows users and clinicians to evaluate various kinds of ocular pathologies in the field of ophthalmology. However, due to limitations of scan speed in imaging devices based on time-domain technology (TD-OCT), only very limited number of cross-sectional image can be obtained for evaluation and examination of the entire retina.
A new generation of OCT technology, Fourier-Domain or Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FD/SD-OCT), is significantly improved from TD-OCT, reducing many of the limitations of OCT such as data scan speed and resolution. 3D data set with dense raster scan or repeated cross-sectional scans can now be achieved by FD-OCT with a typical scan rate of approximately 17,000 to 40,000 A-scans per second. Newer generations of FD-OCT technology will likely further increase scan speeds to 70,000 to 100,000 A-scans per second.
Therefore, there is a need for better, more systematic, systems to collect and analyze OCT data.